Autumn / Winter 24 - music thread

[northerngoldilocks]

Feels like time for a new thread for the new school year!

Come and talk about music lessons, choosing instruments, exams, auditions, specialist schools, orchestras or whatever other music activities are going on. Everyone is welcome, from those with total beginners to those whose children are studying music at advanced levels. Ask for advice or share successes or struggles.

well done@northerngoldilocks - just marking my place here!

@MockCroc Thank you so much for your advice. We're thinking that this will most likely be DS's 'forever clarinet', so it's a big decision and as it's a significant investment, we want to try and get it right and not rush into it.

DS's teacher also recommended the Buffet R13 and gave me the details of a good second hand dealer (Paul Watski), who I've been in touch with. The second hand dealer is going to send us some clarinets to try. I thought we would really benefit from getting some advice from clarinet specialists as well, so we're going to Howarth on Saturday (a long way for us to go!) to try their clarinets. When your DD was trying the clarinets at Howarth, was the sound obviously different on the different models? Did she also try various different mouthpieces as well and what mouthpiece did she go for?

It's so lucky you managed to get a Buffet Festival for £1K less than at Howarth's!

@northerngoldilocks
"Never has choosing a clarinet sounded more like buying a wand at Ollivanders..."

What a brilliant way of putting it!

@minisnowballs Thank you for letting me know about the Assisted Instrument Purchase Scheme! 😊

@horseymum It's interesting to hear that you went for a second hand clarinet. I've been given details about various clarinets between 5 - 30 years old. I don't really know what the difference between a nearly new and an older clarinet is. Did you decide to go for a nearly new or an older one and how did you decide?

@PurpleStarrySocks that sounds like a good plan.

My daughter already has a different mouthpiece than the one that came with her clarinet. She uses a vandoren black diamond. She chose it at howarths a couple of years ago. So she tried the new clarinet models with that. Howarths are really helpful and I am sure they will steer you, but you might be best discussing with them whether he tries the new clarinets with his existing mouthpiece to reduce the variables - I would certainly take it and a reed he has played in - or choosing a new mouthpiece first and then having that to try on the different clarinets. If you email them (if you haven’t already) and book in you can tell them what you want to try and they book you a practice space.

FWIW my daughter’s clarinet teacher gave us this advice for trying new instruments (he WhatsApp’d me so I’ve dug out the message):
Use her mouthpiece and present reed to try any new instruments. Best plan is 1) long notes in all registers; 2) quality especially of the open G; 3) intonation (take a tuner!); 4) ease of crossing the break; 5) quality of tongued notes; 5) hight notes; 6) general ‘feel-good’ factor… Have fun!

we were also told to take a piece that she was familiar with and play the same thing on all of them.

i am a string player so this was all Greek to me, but she was very clear about which instrument she wanted as soon as she played it. I couldn’t tell too much about the sound myself because I am a woodwind philistine but I could tell immediately when she was happy she had found the right thing. And they did all sound much better than her Yamaha (which is still a nice instrument)

I also remind myself that they are all fabulous instruments so they can’t go too far wrong!

good luck with it and I hope he has fun trying them out

also, I nearly got caught up in the “it must be this one” moment when she found a clarinet she really liked at Howarth and I was nearly swayed when they told me “there are differences between particular instruments”. But I decided to buy the cheaper one online anyway and she hasn’t batted an eyelid.

my daughter’s teacher suggested we go second hand - you can find lovely instruments for a fraction of the price. If we hadn’t stumbled on the Thomann deal I think that’s what we would have done

Bit gutted I didn’t know about AIPS though!

Re playing the same thing on all instruments tested i would agree- but also suggest 2 pieces, one faster / baroque and one with longer notes / romantic. When DS was testing flutes he noticed differences in responsiveness over faster passages as well as the tone on longer notes. Doesn't really matter what it is as long as it's something they know so they're listening to the sound rather than thinking about playing the notes!

@PurpleStarrySocks we were buying an oboe rather than clarinet. I'm actually not sure of the age of the ones we have bought but they have all been well looked after.

@MockCroc Thanks for passing on the advice from your DD's teacher re what to play when trying new instruments - that was really useful! Yes, there are so many variables. We'll take my DS's current mouthpiece along (a BG one), but I'm thinking that perhaps we'll need to upgrade that too. I mean, if we try three different mouthpieces and three different clarinets, that's already nine combinations. I don't know if we'll be able to hear the differences between them all!

@northerngoldilocks Thank you for the advice re which pieces to play. I'll go through my DS's pieces with him later to choose the most suitable ones.

@PurpleStarrySocks Howarths are great to visit and it's easy to drop back in for an adjustment afterwards - DD's cork was a bit too tight after she had been playing for a few weeks and we just dropped it in on a Saturday morning and went back to collect it a couple of hours later. DD also went with the Vandoren Black Diamond as opposed to the one that came with her E13 - she tried quite a few mouthpieces before choosing it.

Autumn already though.

Hello, just dropping back in and marking my place! I love hearing about everyone’s talented dc, and making mental notes about things to think about for the future.

My little one has just started the violin (he got one for his 6th birthday in April). He has started to really enjoy his practice now that he can see the results which is very gratifying, and his teacher is really pleased with his progress (he has got to about Grade 1 standard apparently, but not planning on doing any exams just yet). Hopefully the excitement and exhaustion of year 2 doesn’t dampen his enthusiasm!

@yodaforpresident That's great to know, thank you!

I would always go for a Buffet clarinet; they're such a good brand. It's worth trying other brands as well but Buffet come highly recommended for good reason. The quality of manufacturing of instruments in general has deteriorated over time so a second hand instrument isn't actually a bad idea. I had my 30+ year old clarinet completely refurbished last year which cost £300. When I suggested that I could put that money towards a new clarinet instead, the tech reckoned it would be much better invested in restoring my old clarinet. A new mouthpiece is probably just as important as the instrument but can always be bought later on. It's also worth trying different ligatures, I always use the Rovner leather-style ones, both on clarinet and on sax, which act more like string ligatures, I don't get on with metal ligatures at all.

And then of course you'll get through all this thinking you've got a "forever clarinet" then find out you also need to buy an A clarinet!

Thank you for the new thread @northerngoldilocks.

@Compsearch well done to your DS great progress in a short time! My DS didn't do any exams until he was 7 either. I still felt he was very young for it!

Just an update as I haven't been active for a while. DS went to NYSO sinfonietta and thoroughly loved it. They were brilliant with the little ones. Lots of singing and dancing beside the violin playing for musicianship training. Shame it was only 3 days. He's determined to go back next year.

BTW we have an appointment next week at the Benslow to choose a violin for him. I have no idea what level/price range the violins will be but hope they will be better than his current one which is a primavera 200. Does anybody have experience with them and what kind of instruments they provide? Obviously it varies but any experience will be appreciated.

With a piano exam next week and a violin exam for this term we're going to be pretty busy!

Hope everyone's DC are enjoying their musics too!

Exciting news about the choir @minisnowballs DD would be all about the dresses too.

No Benslow experience @chickentikkasalad but our violin teacher said she had one as a child - it depends on level and suitability but hopefully they'll have something that suits him.

Saturday music starts back for DD this week but 2 more weeks away for DS! Unfortunately she fell off her bike today and has bruised both knees, both wrists / hands and her lip / scraped face so all of it might be a bit of a challenge. Good thing she's not a woodwind or brass player though!

Thanks @northerngoldilocks, yes hopefully there'll be a suitable one.

Sorry for your DS's injuries and hope he heals soon!

Sorry just re-read it's your DD!

@chickentikkasalad we borrowed a few violins from Benslow over the years and they were always really helpful. We started with a relatively cheap one and later on they offered an even better one, we had to return one early because the lender wanted it back which is fair enough.

@Compsearch tell me more! He sounds keen. Does he have lessons at school? Which tutor book is he using? Does he have ensemble too? Despite my user name I actually teach violin.

@noteventhebestdrummer thank you for sharing your positive experience! I'm sure they'll be helpful. DS is so excited I hope he gets one he likes.

No exams this term thankfully but auditions for orchestra and conservatoire and several concerts. Lots of dates to keep on top of!